White Wings
by Gina Trujillo
Summary: This is a tale of love and hate, trust and betrayal, of order and chaos. But most of all, it is a story of life and death. Well, mostly of death...
1. The Eggman Empire

_**Author's notes: This story is weird!!!**_

_No, seriously!_

_Alright, to be honest, I'm not sure how weird this will turn out. But to put it bluntly, this is based off of a concept I came up with when I was a disturbed (wow, I didn't know how disturbed at the time,) young teen who would sit awake at night thinking up stories I never intended to write. Good thing, too, because I had no grasp of plots whatsoever at the time!_

_Basically, anything resembling a plot was added in just now as I was writing. Before, all I had was some vague (understatement) character design concepts and something to do with a vampire cat chick maiming and/or seducing people. (Undecided if she'll ever actually show up in here… God, she was lame!)_

_Please be blunt in reviewing, and if you are confused… that may be natural._

_So, without farther ado, I bring you hell on a stick!_

The story I will tell you is a rather strange one. Had I not been there, myself, I would never have believed it. All that I tell you is truth, you must believe me.

This is a tale of many things. Of love and hate. Trust and betrayal. Of order and chaos. But most of all, it is a story of life and death.

Well, mostly of death. But the two tend to go hand in hand.

Bear with me. I often get lost in thought, ever since… Ah, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Our story is about three young heroes who lost themselves.

This is the tale of…

** The White Wings **

Chapter 1: "The Eggman Empire"

It was August 29th, 3246 on the Mobian calendar. This was the day they said that the entire planet wept.

Sonic was dead.

He'd fallen in battle against impossible odds, as he was known to fight. The details were sketchy by the time they'd come so far as to reach me.

But this was only the beginning. It seemed that the fall of Sonic would be the first blow in a long series of ones to follow. After the loss of the self-proclaimed champion of Mobius, much hope was lost. In the face of an impossible war, many people –more than we'd ever imagined- had decided that Sonic was the last great hope.

His death brought about a rash of suicides. People who decided it was better to take their own life than to die at the hands of robots. Among those who gave up was a young boy, no more than nine years old. The news of this spread like wildfire, rumors abound. Some of them stung deep in the hearts of close friends.

The war raged on, and all Freedom Fighters knew they had to fight on, in spite of the tragedy. The Eggman brought about new weapon after new weapon, overtaking territories in a heartbeat.

It wasn't that we thought we couldn't fight without Sonic. It was actually that Eggman thought he couldn't win with Sonic still in his way. None of us had realized it, but the mere _thought_ of Sonic being there was just as much of a barrier as the hedgehog actually fighting. With the mental block out of the mad doctor's mind, his evil genius was free to grow to whole new heights. And it did so.

Gods, did it ever.

In the months to come, the war on Mobius grew to levels so outrageous that no little hamlet or tucked away hole in the ground was safe anymore. Not even Angel Island went untouched. The Eggman Empire was everywhere.

The last contact I had with the Freedom Fighters was in the year 3247. A garbled transmission on a relic of a radio that was all I had in the way of communication with the outside. Muffled or not, one thing was sure about it.

The princess was dead.

I spent the following days in total silence and solitude. I had no way of contacting anyone to find out what happened, and rumors were unlikely to travel far anymore. Robots don't gossip much.

The island held on for a while longer, but it was only a few more months time before the Master Emerald was taken. As I'd done before, I destroyed it at the last moment to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. The shards scattered off into the night. I am the only one who knows how to restore it.

The robots knew this. And they were not happy.

My island was gone, lost to the black depths of the ocean.

And I a prisoner to the Eggman. I remained locked away for the span of nearly a year. I refused to reassemble the Master Emerald, even when Eggman had found all the pieces. He had me tortured, threatened all I knew and loved…

He slit the throats of the Chaotix right in front of me…

But I never gave in.

He beat me.

I didn't give in.

He beat me unconscious.

I didn't give in.

He beat me to death….

But I never gave in.

Yes. You heard me. Death.

On August 29th, 3248, I was beaten to a pulp and finally strangled to death by the hands of an Eggman controlled robot.

And this is where the tale truly begins….

End Chapter 1

Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters © SEGA. Story © Gina Trujillo, Nov. 15, 2004.


	2. Do You Know Where You Are?

_**Author's notes: I told you!**_

_See. Weird. And it gets weirder._

_But I hope it's an enjoyable weird!_

** The White Wings **

Chapter 2: "Do You Know Where You Are?"

It was dark. The deepest blackness you could ever imagine in your life. Dark and silent and void as if none of my senses were working anymore.

When a sound finally broke in, it caused me to jump. A very faint sound, like a crackle of a fire a good ways off. I searched for the source of this sound, but there was none to be found. There was only the black vale over all things.

And then, there was a voice. "Knuckles."

Did I know this voice? I had a feeling I did, but I couldn't remember.

It seemed to take a moment for me to realize that this voice was calling my name. Not only that, but this meant I was supposed to respond.

"Yes?" My voice was choked and it hurt my throat. I coughed and couldn't seem to stop. I felt like I was about to hack up a lung.

Still, this freed me from the void. I felt a hand press to my back. A large, strong hand of a man, I was sure.

My coughing fit about over, I lifted my gaze to meet with the man before me. Tattered fur and bruised face, with blue eyes that held a cold, hollow look to them. He was thin as a rail, yet somehow looked to be stronger than anything.

"Do you know who you are?" He asked me in a pressing tone.

"I'm…" The question struck me as odd, but then I realized I wasn't really sure. "Guardian Knuckles?" I found my tone had a tinge of doubt to it.

"Good." He side glanced, then locked gaze with me again, speaking with urgency, "Do you know where you are?"

I shook my head, then doubled over in another coughing fit.

"Damn it." The man muttered, "Pull yourself together!" He jerked me back upright and I struggled to stifle the cough. "Now look at me! We can't stay here. You have to follow me! You don't really have to cough, that's all in your mind, so forget about it!"

Before I could react, I found myself being pulled by the arm down a dark hallway. The floor felt like rock under my bare feet. Why were my feet bare? Where were my shoes?

I felt the same itch in my throat and coughed again. The man hissed at me to be silent. I clamped a hand over my mouth, as the gravity in his voice showed me this was serious.

There was a light in the tunnel up ahead and the sound of hushed voices came with this. The tunnel opened up to reveal a huge chamber lit by fire. Pits of fire and lava. I realized I was sweating, and had been for a while, it seemed.

My eyes shifted about the room, confused. The ceiling was so far up, it was dizzying. The walls were all made from lava rock; twisted, jagged formations formed over the ages. And there were people there…

"Don't look at anyone." The man hissed at me.

But it was too late. I'd already seen them. Some looked as normal people, if not a bit on the dirty side. (Still, after years of war, I was used to this.) But others… others… Their forms were twisted and mangled, wrenched into horrid, tormented positions. Others still were large and powerful in shape, with huge wings or horns, some with both.

I dropped my eyes to the floor and fell into another coughing fit, this time accompanied by gagging as I tried to keep from vomiting. And I was still pulled onward. I was hauled through the camber, past the many leering faces I tried so hard to ignore. I heard them call me things like 'fresh meat' and 'new blood.' I felt like I was being put in prison.

And just as quickly as we'd entered the room, we were out of it again, headed down a long hallway like the last. Only a small stream of lava that flowed along the wall lighted this one, and there were doors –yes, actual steel doors mounted in the cave wall- along the opposite side of the hall here.

The man selected one of these doors and entered, pulling me in and locking the door behind us.

I was practically thrown to the floor as he made haste to lock up. Stumbling, I caught myself and looked at the new room. This one was much smaller, but still made from the black lava rocks. Tiny, sharp stalactites covered the ceiling like rows of shark teeth. The floor was smooth and polished to a near mirror shine. The only thing in this room was a large, round, black, canopy bed with silk sheets that seemed to move like fire. And shackles….

I swallowed hard, suddenly liking this situation even worse than before. Slowly, I turned to look at the man over my shoulder, and I realized two things about him.

The first was that he had wings. Small wings, no more than a foot long, stuck out from his shoulders. To say they were bat-like would be pushing it, as they only were in that they were leathery. Otherwise, they were unlike any wings I'd seen before. They looked to be shredded and I wondered if they were once larger than this. But, no, they seemed whole for the most part.

The second thing was his tail. Or rather, the two of them.

"Tails!" I practically shouted out from my surprise.

He turned and gave me a small (and rather wicked) smile. "You remember."

When last I'd seen Tails, he was 21 years old. This was a good two years before I'd died.

I'd died. That was when it hit me. A rush of memory returned, making my head and heart pound. I tried to speak, but another coughing fit took me.

Tails sighed in annoyance, walking up to me. He picked me back up, making me stand straight and insisting I stop coughing. When I was unable to do so, he did something I never thought he would do. He bitch slapped me. Right across the face.

I blinked at him in surprise. It had worked. I'd stopped coughing, so I couldn't complain much.

"Now listen to me." Tails spoke in a tone stronger than I'd ever known him to use, "You don't need to cough, and if you start feeling like you can't breathe, don't worry, you don't need to, anyway. It's all just a part of your mind being unable to let go. Clearly from the marks, you were strangled."

I lifted a hand to my neck, "Marks?"

"Yeah, yeah. Shut up an' listen." He muttered, "You'll be alright in a few hours… well, as far as the post shock is concerned. Now, do you know where you are?"

I stared at him dumbly, my mouth open as I shook my head.

He rolled his eyes, "Damn it." He hit my forehead with two fingers, "Think! What do you remember?"

"Eggman." I replied without thinking.

"What about him?" Tails prompted me.

"He… he took over my islan-"

"No!" Tails growled at me, "That's not important! What did Eggman do?"

I paused, unsure of what to say. "He…" I started hesitantly, coaxed on by a waiting look from the fox, "He overthrew…" I stopped myself, suddenly feeling a rage rise within me, "He killed Sonic. He killed Sally…. He killed the Chaotix! He killed everyone! He killed me!"

Tails smiled again in the same sly manner, "There. Now you remember."

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cuss. I wanted to rip something apart.

Instead, I remembered the feeling of slowly being strangled to death. And I doubled over coughing.

Tails tsked at me. "You're hopeless."

I struggled to regain myself.

"And this," Tails continued, "brings us back to my question. Do you know where you are?"

I blinked at him, my anger fading to shock. I started to back away, "No. No way!"

He nodded, "Say it. Where are you?"

"This can't be happening!" I felt like I couldn't breathe.

"It is happening, Knux. Now say it!"

"No!" I screamed at him suddenly, "I don't believe this! This can't be happening!" I gripped the sides of my head, my fingers clawing desperately at the fur. I wanted it to not be true, more than I had ever wanted anything before in my life. I wanted this to all be a dream.

Tails grabbed my arms, shaking me, "You have to say it! You know where you are, now state its name!"

I tried to make him let go, "Get away from me! Get off me! Stop it!"

"No!" He shook me again, "The sooner you say its name, the sooner you can come to grips with it and get on with things! Now say the name!"

But I couldn't. I couldn't speak as I did something I've never done before in front of anyone, and I'm not proud to admit.

I broke down. Sinking to the floor, body trembling, sobbing.

Tails stood over me, disapproving with a frustrated sound, "You're pathetic!"

And he was right. I was. I knew it.

But in my place, what else could one do?

Not much.

And so, I cried.

End Chapter 2

Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters © SEGA. Story © Gina Trujillo, Nov. 15, 2004.


	3. Yet to be Named

**The White Wings **

Chapter 3: "Yet to be Named."

"Why am I here?"

"The question of the millennium."

"No, seriously, I need to know!"

"And you assume _I_ know why?"

I'm not sure how long I'd been there. Must have been nearly a day. Time no longer had meaning, it seemed, although I know it took me a good, long time to calm down after the initial shock.

I was sitting with Tails on the edge of the silken bed. This was his, he told me, but said nothing else of it and changed the subject quickly. It did raise a few questions, some of which I was sure I didn't really want to know the answers to.

Tails shook his head, "You crazy bastard, you're the only one who knows why you're here."

"No, I don't know!" I growled back. I tried to think of anything that I could have possibly done to deserve this. Nothing was coming to mind.

"You'll figure it out," he said. "I still haven't heard you say the name of this place."

"I don't want to," I whispered in reply, sounding like a little kid.

"Yeah, well you're gonna do a damned lot of things you don't want to down here, and this is one of the mild ones!" He snapped at me. "So fucking deal with it!"

We sat in silence after that, glaring into each other. I finally broke this with a sigh as I looked away. "I'll do it when I'm ready."

"Fuck-nut," he muttered, standing, "This isn't a place to stall around in, y'know. But fine. Wait if you want to. No skin off my back."

I didn't know what to say to this.

"You're lucky I found you," he commented, "Maybe I can put in a good word for you."

"With who?"

He fixed me with an icy gaze. "Do you really need to ask?" He turned and headed for the door, "Now c'mon. I need to get to work."

We both moved into the hall, stopping outside as he pointed back towards the chamber we'd already been in. "That's the main chamber. Kinda like the closest thing to a safe zone we have around here. At least it's the only mutual territory, and until you make some allies, you're gonna need to stay on neutral turf." He pointed on down the hall, "Private chambers down this way, I don't suggest you head there, unless you're with me. Not even if someone invites you that way, got it?"

I nodded, trying to let this all sink in.

"Best idea is to find a nook in the wall to hide out in for a while, get your wits around you. Trust me, you're gonna need 'em! If anyone comes near you with any kind of attitude, kick the living shit out of them. Unless they have wings, then I suggest you just go limp and wait for the pain to subside."

"Wait, what?"

"Trust me, fighting will only make things worse, tenderfoot," he told me, "Lay low, I'll come find you later on."

"Hold on, you're leaving?" This was the second most horrible news I'd heard all day. "Where are you going?"

"I just gotta go, okay?" He retorted defensively, "Now get your ass into that room!" He pointed to the main chamber. I followed his hand, already able to hear the voices down that way. I felt a shiver run through me, in spite of still feeling overheated.

When I looked back, Tails was gone.

I shivered again and nervously headed in the direction I'd been instructed.

I'd found that in my life, I'd always rather liked chaos. It was a word I liked to say, and something I liked to inflict on others lives. _This _was not the kind of chaos I liked in the least. The bustle of bodies and shoving about within this room was enough to drive one mad. It was like being in the middle of the worlds largest bar fight. There'd been times where I jumped into the middle of bar fights just for the hell of it. But then, I'd never seen a bar fight that involved so many weapons before. The people around me hacked and stabbed at each other like we were in the middle of a war zone were everyone was on their own side.

I ducked low and did as Tails said; found a small crevice to hide in for a while. It was a crack in the wall down by the floor that was big enough for me to sit in rather comfortably. Knees tucked to my chest, I watched the battle before me in case it should spill over to my haven.

Understandably, I didn't know what to do. What were the chances of this sort of thing happening? Not just landing up in a place like this one, but the fact that Tails had actually found me was a surprise.

As I'd said, the last time I'd seen Tails –when we were alive- was when he was 21. He'd just turned, actually. I don't remember most of that night, however, because we all got hammered beyond recognition. Sonic had a hangover that lasted well into the next night.

As my thoughts turned to the hedgehog, I sat up straighter and started searching the crowd. I didn't know if he was actually going to be there, but I was sure that if he'd come this way, he was smack in the middle of that fight. I didn't see Sonic and actually had to turn away rather quickly as a man suddenly had his head smashed in with a rock club.

This was unbelievable.

"Hey, freshman!" A voice suddenly said.

Before even looking up, I pushed myself out of the nook and fell on-guard.

A wolf man stood before me, his left arm clearly twisted out of place. He backed up a step, putting up his other hand. "Whoa, whoa, easy, there! I just wanna talk!"

I didn't drop my guard. "Alright. Talk."

He paused awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck, "Just thought, y'know, seein' as you're new around here, you might want someone to tell ya a bit about what's going on."

Before I could answer, the man was given a flying kick to the side of his head and he fell to the ground. The strongest looking woman I'd ever seen stood in his place. She was a dingo with gray fur that was strangely clean considering the condition of the others about. In fact, her hair was perfectly kept. Aside from the fact that she had the waist of someone with anorexia, she looked a rather menacing adversary. The wings helped that, too.

Her wings were like the ones I'd seen on Tails, only increased in size about twenty-fold. Deep red, leathery, and shredded. They spread out wide, doming to either side of me to block any exit I may have had. Yet she hadn't looked at me yet. Her attention was on the man on the ground.

"Quit sucking up, worm!" Her tone was strangely playful considering she'd just knocked someone upside the head. "Acting so innocent! I know what you're really after!"

"Why you always gotta rag on me?" The man whined.

She didn't reply to him, but instead turned to me. "So you came in with Miles, hm?" It took me a moment to remember this was Tails' real name. "My, my. How odd. I've never known him to go for guys."

That one caught me off-guard. I tried to say something in my own defense, but I wasn't able to find real words. Sounds, yes, but not words.

She laughed, "No worries. Your secret's safe with me."

I noticed that the wolf man was trying to get my attention. He was making slashing motions across his throat. I figured he wanted me to not talk to her.

Suddenly, I realized what he meant as a large knife was swung at me. I had hardly even seen her move, and only managed to dodge enough that the blade's tip caught the edge of my jaw rather than sinking into my neck.

She laughed insanely as we circled. There was no way I was about to let her get away with that one. She swung at me again and again. Each time I managed to dodge enough that she missed her intended target, but never enough that I wasn't hit. Bleeding and tiring out, I tried to find an exit. Her wings still kept me backed to the wall, and she never let up that position for a moment.

She shouted out, "I've got a fighter! I've got a fighter!" People started gathering to watch my slaughter, which is never a comforting factor.

I continued my dodging as much as I could, but her cuts were becoming deeper and deeper as I slowed. Suddenly, her wing moved enough that I saw an opening near the wall. I bolted for it, only to feel the sting of her knife in the back of my shoulder. I remember screaming as I fell, but beyond that… I think my mind blocked it out for me.

What I do remember is waking up again…

End Chapter 3

Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters © SEGA. Story © Gina Trujillo, Nov. 16, 2004.


	4. Small Comforts

**Author's notes:**

Holy hell, this story has been sitting dead for a while. A random review prompted me to finish up a chapter I had laying around.

Uhm, let's see… to answer a few questions I have had on this for the general public:

This story should be relatively short. Things will get moving along quicker in the next chapter.

Secondly, no, this is not yaoi, slash, or whatever one wants to call it. XD Sorry to disappoint. If you're into that thing, feel free to take it all out of context to your heart's content. I do realize there's a lot of opening for it. But no, I do not intend for this fic to be a pairing between anyone. It's just a warped story.

** The White Wings **

Chapter 4: "Small Comfort"

The pain hit me in a huge wave that pulled me down into a world where it was all that existed. My body arched and writhed as if it could escape from the agony by squirming. Pain is omnipresent. It may be the only thing that is.

I fell in and out of consciousness, I couldn't possibly say for how long. When I finally came to my senses, I found I'd been moved back into the small room where Tails and I had talked before. I was lying on the bed, the silk sheets touching lightly upon my battered muscles.

Tails was pacing the floor, but not in the normal manner one would expect. He was down on all fours, moving back and forth like a caged lion. His shoulder muscles shifted menacingly with every animalistic step he took, ragged wings accenting the movement. The moment he noticed I was awake, he jumped back to his feet. "About time," he said, his tone deeply annoyed and even angry.

My hand ran along the fire colored sheets and I felt a tingle run through my fingertips. There was something about the bed that felt like the prefect place to be. A ray of comfort in the darkness. I didn't know at the time, but this was true in many ways, for the sheets held a property that would bind back the pain for a time and let one rest.

"You fought back." Tails growled at me, "I specifically told you not to fight back!" I didn't have an answer for him. I stayed silent. The fox growled again. "Damn it, Knuckles! What the hell is wrong with you? I'm trying to help you here! I can't do that if you won't fucking listen to me!"

I nodded slowly. I still didn't know what to say. I'd never backed down from someone who pulled a knife on me before, but in the days to come, I would learn.

"Come on. Get up." Tails barked at me. I reluctantly did as told, looking down at myself as I moved to inspect the damage. To my surprise, every one of the cuts was closed up, healing over as if I'd been unconscious for days. "Quick gawking," Tails told me. "You'll get used to healing fast. Trust me, it doesn't really help that much. Now let's go. It's time to start your training."

Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters © SEGA. Story © Gina Trujillo, May 27, 2008.


	5. Learning the Ropes

**Author's notes:**

This chapter goes quick. I'm trying to get things actually moving.

** The White Wings **

Chapter 5: "Learning the Ropes"

At the time, I thought that "training" was really an odd term for what Tails had in mind. By this, what he really meant was it was time for me to start learning just how much pain this world could dish out. A lot of it is a blur in my memory these days, thankfully. I will spare you the gruesome details, partly for my own sanity and partly for yours. I will generalize by saying that I spent my days in constant battle, usually against foes who outmatched me greatly. When I was unlucky, I regained consciousness in torture chambers. Usually I would find myself simply lying on the floor where I had fallen. On fortunate occasions, I would find myself wrapped in the pain-numbing sheets when I came back to the waking world.

I noticed that I never dreamed. Dreams, I was told, were something of the living world. I was not allowed such a luxury in this place. Something about this fact made sleep feel much less resting.

I was constantly on-guard, to the point of paranoia at times. My muscles hardly got a rest. Tails tried to stress to me that it was all in my mind. Things like muscles, breathing, and sleep were things of the land of the living. He told me I would overcome it all, given time.

It was a few months before I started to see what it was I was accomplishing by repeatedly being beaten to a pulp. I use the term months loosely – I truly have no idea how long I was there. Again, time had no meaning. At any rate, I started to realize that I was feeling pain less and less. It was still there, I just felt more able to push such things aside. Once this happened, injuries didn't slow me down as much. I started lasting longer in battles. This eventually gave way to me actually winning a battle.

As my opponent of a half-hour long fight lay unconscious at my feet, Tails grasped my shoulder and said the first nice thing I had heard from him. "Good job. Let's go celebrate."

'Celebrating,' I promptly learned, was a nice way of saying 'let's go ritualistically scar both your shoulder-blades with a cursed, fire-covered, obsidian knife.' I was reluctant, but as ever, Tails was persistent. Being as he was really the only connection I had in this world, I quickly fell into a habit of simply trusting his word and doing as he said. Of course I didn't realize I was doing this at the time. If I had, I would have been furious with myself. I've never been one to blindly follow anyone by my own instincts. I hate to say this was a week moment for me, but for lack of a better way to put it, we shall go with that.

I do believe I've gotten distracted again. Where was I? Right, fiery cursed knife, ritualistic scaring.

I was instructed to stand before an altar in one of the grand caves I was seldom allowed to venture into. The walls had been carved with intricate designs and many different runes. Tails spoke to the ceiling, his voice loud and powerful. "This man has proven his potential as a warrior. On this night, he joins the ranks."

There was a pause before another voice boomed from the rafters. "Proceed."

Tails took up the cursed blade from the altar and made two fast strokes with it across my shoulders. The pain was worse than anything I had ever felt, but only for a brief moment. Then the feeling gave way to one of immense power. I had felt the power of Chaos Emeralds before, which I had thought was the most powerful thing in the universe. The feeling that washed over me made Chaos energy look weak by comparison. Suddenly I knew that I could stand up to literally any opponent. In that moment, I was sure that I would never again be defeated. Nothing could stand in my way.

"Welcome, Knuckles," Tails spoke with a sly grin, "You are one of us now."

End Chapter 5

Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters © SEGA. Story © Gina Trujillo, May 27, 2008


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